Kirk and the gang are back on the big screen, Zachary Quinto is making you wake up in the night screaming about Vulcan sex and all of a sudden it’s almost cool to like Star Trek again. Yes, there may be a re-boot going on but if you watch any television at all it’s plain to see that Star Trek never actually left us. Below are just three of the Trek ripples you can see on your very tellybox right now.

1. Watching Dollhouse? You’re actually watching :

TNG Series 5 : Episode 21 ‘The Perfect Mate’

Famke Janssen guest stars as Kamala, a pheromone producing ‘metamorph’ who is to be given as a gift to the ruler of the planet Valt Minor in order to secure peace between worlds. A metamorph is able to adapt their personality to become whatever their partner needs them to, which stirs all kinds of moral maelstroms in Captain Jean-Luc Picard before he finally gives in and accepts her offer of some Earl Gray tea. Needless to say Riker’s already been in there like a rat up a drainpipe.

Similarly Dollhouse revolves around human beings who are imprinted with whatever personality their paying partner wants. The same moral questions are thrown up – are they slaves, or does their preliminary consent equal a brave new world where people can choose to be ‘the perfect mate’. Are the people who use the doll/metamorph just implicit in sexual abuse or are they only enjoying the benefits of their partner’s wish to be malleable? Does Will Riker care either way or would he hump Data’s spare leg if it was left lying around?

Thief!

Riker’s line “If anyone needs me I’ll be on holodeck four” echoes into Firefly with Jayne Cobb’s catchphrase “I’ll be in my bunk”.

2. Watching Heroes? Hey, that reminds me of..

TOS Season 1 Episode 3 ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’

A strange cosmic event gives crew member Gary Mitchell the power of ESP which immediately gives him a God complex and leads to him being treated with suspicion by the rest of the crew. Their suspicion proves well-founded as he begins to exhibit other abilities such as technopathy and eidetic memory and finds that they are eroding his very humanity. Eventually Kirk has to try and maroon him on a distant planet and kill him by burying him under a load of foam rocks. Yep, that should do it..

In Heroes an eclipse gifts extraordinary powers to ordinary humans, including one Gabriel Gray who finds that he can take all the abilities he wants with a little move I like to call the ‘cerebellum shuffle’. True to form he starts to have an identity crisis and soon believes he’s far too awesome to obey silly little societal rules like ‘don’t be a serial killer’. Then everyone tries to kill him. Rather unsuccessfully seeing as one of the abilities he’s picked up is rapid cellular generation.

Thief!

Mitchell : [To Kirk] You should have killed me while you could, James…command and compassion is a fool’s mixture.

Ando : Hiro is not silly!
Sylar : You should have seen the look on his face when he tried to kill me!

3. Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a ctrl + alt + c of….

TNG Season 4 Episode 25 ‘In Theory’

The problem with having android characters in TV is that people invariably want to have sex with them. In ‘In Theory’ Data decides to investigate the affection thing so beloved of strange and squishy humans by dating one of them. Data’s hit and miss attempts to understand the mindfuck that goes with dating a human female is a little heartbreaking, especially when he gets dumped and simply deletes his dating programme. If only it were that simple….

Cameron is a terminator charged with protecting John Connor, and is played by sweet little Summer Glau who consistently kicks everything’s ass in everything she’s in. Of course, Cameron is a robot who has to deal with human emotions and our whacky ways, which leads to all kinds of hijinks. She copies human emotions without really understanding them, as Data does in ‘In Theory’, which leads to the occasional giggle and the occasional “whoah, that’s disturbing”. While she’s not yet as emotionally developed as Data the opportunity to see what happens when you stick Little Miss Asskick with human feelings is surely something that won’t be passed up should TSCC make it back for season 3.

Thief!

Cameron shows a particular passion for dancing, having a ballet lesson in the episode ‘The Demon Hand’. Data had lessons from Dr Beverly Crusher in preparation for Keiko’s wedding in ‘Data’s Day’.

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